Maggie and Ruby’s Holiday Gift

It is hard to come by siblings that don’t have their fair share of differences, especially where there is an age difference of several years between them. Sister Black labrador retrievers Ruby and Maggie are the perfect example of this. Their owners, Barb and Robin, came to us earlier this year after receiving one of our gift certificates for Christmas.

We visited Barb and Robin at their warm, arts and crafts home in Toronto’s Hogg’s Hollow neighbourhood to learn about their dogs. Ruby is the little sister and being only a year old she’s quite the crazy girl. Wiggling and jumping around, she is always full of energy and ready to play. Barb and Robin wanted to capture this youthful spirit in Ruby’s photos. Maggie on the other hand is the big sister at seven years old. Like most big sisters, she is more quiet and sensitive. Barb and Robin love how Maggie makes different facial expressions when they speak to her. It’s as if she is taking part in the conversation. Her beautiful feathered tail was also important for us to capture in her photos. We then spent time learning about Maggie and Ruby as a pair. Even though Maggie does enjoy playing with Ruby, playtime is always on her terms since Ruby’s youthful energy can get a little annoying at times. Being retrievers, these dogs love playing tug-of-war with sticks and fetching tennis balls, so we knew our collection of toys would definitely have to come out for this photoshoot.  

Barb and Robin had a specific vision in mind for their artworks. They wanted three large pieces to hang above the couch in their family room. The photos needed to capture each dog’s unique personality, as well as their special sisterly bond. One of their most important requests was to ensure that the dogs’ beautiful, shiny black coats would be highlighted in the photos. Many people struggle to capture great photos of their dark coloured pets, but with the proper lighting and photographic techniques this would be no problem for us.

On the day of the shoot, Ruby and Maggie had their game faces on and were excellent to work with. They were easy going but ready to play whenever we pulled out their toys. Being labs, they also loved getting tasty rewards for all their hard work. We learned key words that Maggie liked to hear and she was happy to show off some of her adorable facial expressions when we started speaking to her. We were sure we had the perfect shots of each dog individually, so we broke out their sticks to capture photos of them playing together.

When we later met with Barb and Robin to discuss image selection and printing options, they were drawn to our metal prints with silver flush mount frames. They decided on a 30” x 30″ metal print for each of the dogs’ individual portraits, and a 30” x 40″ metal print for their portrait together. The couple also decided to order a session album, since we had captured so many great photos of their dogs. We were very pleased with how everything turned out – another great holiday gift from Jason KB Animal Photography.